The 2024-25 season counts as a successful one for a Portland Trail Blazers team that fully committed to the rebuild during the 2023-24 campaign when they traded franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard after a few tumultuous seasons. The turnaround hasn't been as swift as the most optimistic fan would expect, but last year, the Blazers won 36 games and even challenged for a play-in spot at one point.
Now, the expectations for the Blazers this season is that they continue on the upward trajectory they're in. The front office certainly expects that they will be playing winning basketball next year, with general manager Joe Cronin declaring that it's “winning time” for the squad in Portland.
Their moves this offseason indicate that the Blazers are leaning towards an identity of defense; they brought in two-time NBA champion Jrue Holiday in a trade involving Anfernee Simons to complement their burgeoning defensive core. They also let go of Deandre Ayton, freeing up the spot for Donovan Clingan to be the team's starting center for the foreseeable future.
The start of training camp is almost upon us, and some positional battles will be resolved by then. But as things stand, this is how the Blazers starting lineup is likely to look like, at least heading into the start of the 2025-26 season.
Blazers' projected starting lineup for 2025-26 season
The Blazers, as mentioned earlier, are leaning into a lockdown defensive identity. They did not bring in a well-respected veteran like Holiday, who's making loads of money, just to have him come off the bench to back up Scoot Henderson. Of course, Henderson can still make that starting job his considering how much the Blazers have invested in him and how highly the franchise regards him. But entering training camp, Holiday is the team's starting point guard, and it's his job to lose.
Clingan will join Holiday as the players comprising the Blazers' defensive backbone. Clingan can have some mobility issues at times, but his sheer size and length allows him to crowd the paint and anchor the team's defense. The Blazers' defense was nearly four points better with Clingan on the court last year, according to PBP Stats.
On the wing, Deni Avdija is a nailed-on starter; Avdija averaged 16.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in 72 games last year (54 starts). He blossomed as a do-it-all creator on the wing, and his defensive workrate has not waned one bit. The Blazers struck gold when they acquired him for a late lottery pick, and he figures to be a big part of the team for years to come.
Shaedon Sharpe and Toumani Camara will be completing the starting five; the former averaged 18.5 points per game in just 52 starts last year (72 games), while Camara is one of the most well-rounded defenders in the NBA. Camara is both a stifling presence on the perimeter, and he can also guard bigger players on the post. Camara is an indispensable member of the Blazers' starting five, and last year, he started all 78 games he suited up in. This shows how much head coach Chauncey Billups trusts him.
With that said, this is the player who is in danger of a rotation demotion or a reduced role moving forward.
Jerami Grant's role on the Blazers might be cooked
The Blazers do not have the best depth in the NBA. Letting go of Ayton for free, as well as the loss of Simons, might also make the Blazers' offense struggle more often. Avdija has made plenty of strides, and so has Sharpe, but the team's commitment to defense is inevitably going to have some drawbacks, and that is going to be their ability to score.
Portland did sign Lillard in free agency, but he won't be back until the start of the 2026-27 season anyway. The onus will be on Avdija and Sharpe to lead the offense, and they can certainly do that; but they may end up running out of juice considering they haven't been tasked to lead an offense in the past.
This could open up the possibility of a Jerami Grant revival. Grant is still one of the best scorers in the team, and Billups certainly wants to rely on him when he's healthy. The Blazers paid him good money back in the 2023 offseason to do so after all. But Grant is never healthy come the end of the season, and to make matters worse, his play tanked considerably last year, when he put up just 14.4 points per contest on a brutal 37.3 percent shooting from the field.
Grant just takes low-efficiency shots, and he doesn't have great handles to gain much separation. He ends up in so many situations where he just barfs up random shots from midrange, and his overall play, as a result, suffered.
Nevertheless, it figures as though he'll still be playing a huge role for the Blazers next season. His three-point shot is still good, as he shot 36.5 percent from deep last year, and with Holiday and Henderson being the team's full-time point guards, he could very well have more open looks from beyond the arc and his overall scoring efficiency will bounce back.
But Grant has overall been an unreliable player in Blazers colors (his injury history is headache-inducing), and at this point, the team may simply want to play him just to drum up some interest on the trade market. Perhaps his best utility for Portland from here on out is as a trade chip, as his $32 million a year salary could be utilized to bring in someone who fits the team more seamlessly.
The Blazers' depth is not ideal, so Grant will be looked at as someone who should help out the team to start off the new campaign. But no one should be surprised if the Blazers start cutting his minutes back, favoring Avdija, Sharpe, and Camara in the process.
Grant has to prove that he is willing to be more of a team player, accept his deficiencies as a shot-creator, and be more of a supporting piece for the Blazers. He has chosen the life of a featured player starting in 2021, but it looks like his true basketball calling is as a high-quality support player on a winning team. If he doesn't accept that calling of his, then the Blazers may as well start moving on from him.
